Video Franchising Principles Introduced in Senate Recognizing Role of Cities
By Ron Thaniel
February 20, 2006
During the current Presidents' Day congressional recess, it is important that you meet with your Senators to express support for the Burns/Inouye principles maintaining local government’s franchise agreement authority.
Congress should not try to manage local streets and sidewalks from Washington; national franchising would abrogate a basic tenet of federalism by granting companies access to locally owned property.
Franchises do not just provide permission to offer video services, they are the core tool local government uses to manage streets and sidewalks, provide for public safety, enhance competition, and to collect compensation for private use of public land. Eliminating local franchise agreement authority will cause chaos and deprive local government of the power to perform its basic functions.
For more information, contact Conference of Mayors Assistant Executive Director for Telecommunications Policy Ron Thaniel at 202-861-6711 or send e-mail to rthaniel@usmayors.org. |
Senator Conrad Burns (MT) and Senator Daniel Inouye (HI), Senior Majority Member and Ranking Member, respectively, of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee, introduced video (cable) principles February 2 for the rewrite of the Federal Communications Act that seek to foster competition and recognize the role of cities in the franchising process.
In introducing the principles, Burns said, “The principles we’ve put forth will lay the groundwork for serious reform of franchising that will not only benefit consumers through ensuring honest competition for their business, but will also allow new franchisees to enter markets with level playing fields while maintaining the local control so important to communities around the country.”
In a letter to Burns and Inouye and copied to the full Senate, Conference President Long Beach Mayor Beverly O’Neill thanked them “for reaffirming … the role of local governments in the video franchising process and recognizing our absolute interest in increased competition in video services.”
The Bell companies are aggressively lobbying Congress to be exempted from the local video franchising process in favor of a national or state-wide franchise system.
The Burns'Inouye principles are:
Recognize and Reaffirm the Role of States and Localities in the Video Franchising Process.
The regulation of video services under Title VI relies upon a type of “deliberately structured dualism,” where state and local authorities have primary responsibility for administration of the franchising process within certain federal limits. Because each community may be unique, this framework recognizes that the local franchising authority is uniquely positioned to ensure that video providers meet each community’s needs and interests in a fair and equitable manner, and are most effective in seeing that provider obligations are enforced. The federal government has neither the resources nor the expertise to address such issues.
Consistent with existing law, state or local franchise authorities should retain the authority to supervise rights'of-way use and recover the associated costs, to require the payment of a reasonable franchise fee, and to require sufficient outlets for local expression and appropriate institutional network obligations.
Promote Competition by Facilitating Speedy Entry on Fair Terms.
Video Franchise Reform should promote competition in video services. Obstacles to reform that result in unnecessary procedural delay should be eliminated. If the current process results in unnecessary delay, procedural timetables could be established to ensure a decision by the relevant franchising authority by a date certain.
Nevertheless, the desire for a process facilitating swift entry should not result in a blank check for would-be competitors. Instead, franchising authorities must ensure that similar (though not necessarily identical) responsibilities attend to any would-be franchisee, so that consumers throughout the franchise area can enjoy the benefits of such services on a non-discriminatory basis.
Promote Competitive Neutrality and a Level Playing Field.
The regulatory regime should be the same for providers of video services where the operator, and not the consumer, controls the video content offering. Definitional arbitrage on the basis of a particular technology should not be permitted.
The franchising process should be designed to promote fairness for consumers in local communities and to promote a level playing field for providers. If a competitive entrant negotiates better terms and conditions for a franchise, other providers in that community should be entitled to adopt those same terms and conditions.
Cities Want Competition in Video.
Responding to claims made by the Bells that the cities are barriers to the deployment of video services, O’Neill said, “This suggestion could not be further from the truth as evident by the support of nearly 100 mayors who endorsed a letter to Congress … stating ‘We support and encourage innovation in video, telephone and broadband services and embrace increased competition, as fast and as much as the market will sustain.’”
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